Exciting Guangzhou Draw For Ireland Women's Sevens Side

The Ireland Women will open next month's IRB Women's Sevens World Series event in China against joint series leaders and round 3 winners, Australia.

The Guangzhou Sevens tournament will take place over the weekend of April 5-6 at the University Town Stadium.

Ireland have fond memories of Guangzhou having won the Plate title there twelve months ago, with a number of 2013 Grand Slam winners, including Alison Miller, Claire Molloy and Lynne Cantwell, helping them beat Australia and the Netherlands.

The girls in green are one of the core team on the 2013/14 IRB Women's Sevens World Series circuit and with a new-look squad, picked up one and two series points respectively during the recent rounds in Atlanta and São Paulo.

Jon Skurr's Ireland side will face the São Paulo champions Australia in Guangzhou. The other teams in Pool B are England and Fiji, both familiar opponents for the Irish from previous rounds this season.

It will be an important weekend for the series - there is nothing to separate rivals Australia and New Zealand who are both on 56 points, eight points ahead of Canada in third place. Ireland lie 11th overall.

IRB Head of Competition and Performance Mark Egan said: "The 'road to Rio' is getting shorter and Guangzhou is another opportunity for these players to get quality competition time ahead of the Olympic Games in 2016.

"The third round in São Paulo saw yet another fantastic final between Australia and New Zealand, and I expect fans in Guangzhou will witness another excellent weekend of rugby at the University Stadium."

All the action from the fourth round of the IRB Women's Sevens World Series in Guangzhou will be streamed live on wsws.irb.com from 10am local time (Ireland is eight hours behind) on Saturday, April 5.

IRB WOMEN'S SEVENS WORLD SERIES - FOURTH LEG:

CHINA SEVENS - POOL B FIXTURES:

Saturday, April 5 -

Australia v IRELAND, University Town Stadium, Guangzhou, 11.28am local timeIRELAND v England, University Town Stadium, Guangzhou, 2.34pm local timeIRELAND v Fiji, University Town Stadium, Guangzhou, 5.18pm local time

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